Because of the way the British system of government operates, before Tony Blair could commit British ground troops to the conflict in Iraq he had to prove there was reason for this use of force. Different reports and dossiers were compiled. Some of these were in conjunction with the work been done at the time by the United Nations weapon inspectors working in Iraq.
The British scientist in charge of compiling reports and dealing with the British media with regard to weapon reports on Iraq was Dr David Kelly. Kelly was a respect scientist working for the Ministry of Defence. One of the key factors that allowed the current government to commit to war was that in one of the documents written about Iraq's offensive capability, it was reported that Iraq had the capability to launch banned and internationally illegal weapons of mass destruction within forty five minutes of the order being given.
The war in Iraq is now over and as our forces continue to keep the peace over there a huge scandal has developed at home. The document that led to the commitment of British forces in Iraq is now at the heart of a major political scandal. It is alleged that this document was "sexed up" - these allegations refer to the theory that at some point before the document was published, those with access to it adapted it to suit their purpose. The ultimate aim of this adaptation to the document was to convince everyone in the government that there was reason and justification to go to war with Iraq. This document was closely linked to Dr David Kelly and so when these allegations arose, he was interrogated by personal from the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office. Dr David Kelly was also at this time communicating to a reporter from the BBC called Andrew Gilligan. Kelly was apparently put under great pressure from Gilligan for privileged information relating to the weapons dossier. Kelly apparently leaked important and volatile information to the reporter putting pressure on him.